A second Boulder County resident has died after testing positive for the new coronavirus, Boulder County Public Health officials reported on Tuesday.

The only information given about that person is that they were in their 70s, and had been hospitalized for nearly two weeks, according to a news release, and that the patient had contracted COVID-19 through community transmission.

News of the second death in the county came as the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment reported that deaths statewide are up to 69, from the 51 reported just 24 hours earlier.

Boulder County Public Health was notified of the second person’s death Tuesday. It is the second fatality of a county resident during a global pandemic which has led to a shutdown of most public activity under an order from Gov. Jared Polis, which took effect Thursday morning. The first death was that of a Lafayette man in his 60s. Neighboring Broomfield County reported its first coronavirus-related death Monday.

“I am heartbroken to learn that another Boulder County family has been torn apart by this disease,” Jeff Zayach, Boulder County Public Health director, said in a statement.

“In the next couple weeks, it is likely we will see a rapid increase in the number of people in our community who test positive for the virus, including people who will require hospital care for their illness. Now, more than ever, it is vital that we all follow the Colorado Public Health order and stay at home as much as possible. The more we all stay home, the more successful we will be at stopping this virus from spreading and causing illness and death in our community.”

Including that death, as of late Tuesday, 115 individuals in Boulder County had tested positive for COVID-19. Of the residents who have tested positive, 20 have required hospitalization and six of those hospitalized were younger than 60, according to Boulder County Public Health spokesperson Chana Goussetis. To date, 43 residents have recovered from the illness.

The average age of Boulder County residents who have tested positive for COVID-19 has increased slightly to 47 years old. County health staff are currently conducting disease investigations for 29 individuals, Goussetis said.

The county’s numbers are not believed to represent the full dimensions of the pandemic locally, because many people have not been tested.

Statewide, according to CDPHE, 2,966 people have tested positive across 50 of Colorado’s 64 counties. A total of 509 people have been hospitalized and there have been outbreaks reported at 16 residential and non-hospital health care facilities. The state report is current only through Monday’s available data, and does not reflect cases confirmed since then.

‘Still on an upslope’

Carol Helwig, Communicable Disease Control Epidemiologist for Boulder County Public Health, said Tuesday that it is too soon to say there is any flattening of the curve in the area’s infection rate.

“We are seeing more cases reported to us each day, for now,” Helwig said. “We’re starting to see more cases come in each day, and as the volume increases, we’re going to be carefully monitoring the cases to see if we start to see flattening trends. But I would say at this point in the process, we’re still on an upslope.”

Prior to the pandemic, the county public health department had three epidemiologists on staff available to conduct investigations pertaining to those diseases reportable to state public health authorities. Early in this current crisis, two were added, and then another five. Helwig hopes that eventually that can be ramped up to 16 people, including four lead epidemiologists holding master’s degrees in epidemiology, complemented by other team members drawn from a variety of partnering public health programs.

Helwig said the first positive COVID-19 case in Boulder County was identified with an onset date of March 4, and that an estimated minimum of five days’ incubation time means that individual was likely infected about the last week of February. She said county health investigators have not pinpointed one event, one specific party or public gathering, to which any significant number of cases can be tied.

“We are graphing out people’s onset dates and the period of exposure, and right now we have community exposure in general,” she said. “We have people saying, ‘I was just doing groceries, I never left Boulder, I didn’t come in contact with any sick folks that I know of.’ They have no idea how they got it — but they haven’t left Boulder County.

“We have seen that type of known community exposure in a lot of our cases, and we are seeing it in a lot of our early cases… And we have seen that continuing on. Through our analysis, we can’t say it was this place or it was that place. We’re just seeing, in our interviews, a variety of parts of the county that just have the exposure. And we can’t pinpoint where.”

‘As many precautions as you can’

COVID-19 is primarily spread through respiratory droplets spread when a person with the illness coughs or sneezes. People who have prolonged contact within six feet of a person with the disease are most at risk of transmission.

Zayach also said in his statement Tuesday, “If you absolutely must go out, be very sure that you stay at least 6 feet away from others who do not live in your household, and wash your hands with soap and water for at least 20 seconds as soon as you get home.

“Take as many precautions as you can, like bringing a disinfectant wipe with you to touch things like gas pump handles and grocery carts. It is also very important that you continue keeping your home clean and disinfected in accordance with CDC guidelines.”

Such measures include ceasing all business activity unless it can be done safely from home, or your work is classified as an essential business. People are also directed to cease all public or private gatherings, other than gatherings of a single household or living unit. Also, it is asked that state residents stop all travel except that which is deemed essential.

For more information about COVID-19, residents can call CO-Help at 303-389-1687 or 1-877-462-2911 or email them at COHELP@RMPDC.org. Both call centers have Spanish-speaking staff available.